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Friday, February 17, 2012

Apple to introduce iTunes store in Korea?

The Joongang Daily carried an interesting story about the possibility that Apple will bring its market-leading iTunes Store to Korea, making it the second Asian market for the service, following Japan. As noted in the article, domestic online music stores are concerned about the move. The accompanying graphic shows which companies currently dominate Korea's market (click on graphic to see a full size version). The article discusses various pros and cons of local services versus Apple's iTunes, and is worth reading. I would only add that, in the big picture, Apple is typical of many large American companies that view the Korean market as a niche and are slow to localize their services in order to compete effectively here.

1 comment:

"Apple is typical of many large American companies that view the Korean market as a niche and are slow to localize their services in order to compete effectively here."

And also atypical in that they have over 60 billion dollars in the bank. If localized Korean content is a drop in the ocean of your average large american company, it is a drop in the universe for Apple.

I have no anti-Korean agenda, I feel more companies could benefit from focussing more on the Korean market - but Apple is hardly going to have the motivation of a smaller, hungrier player.